


Fledgling Steps

by mari4212



Category: Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: First Meetings, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 03:54:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17036141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mari4212/pseuds/mari4212
Summary: There were many things Rikash had expected to come across when he was stationed to Dunlath.  Somehow, this one, he had not expected at all.





	Fledgling Steps

**Author's Note:**

  * For [oxymora (oxymoron)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/oxymoron/gifts).



“--You’re certain that we have enough controls over the giants? They mustn’t be allowed to break loose. We can’t keep Orzone supplied well enough if we don’t have enough workers.” The woman, Yolane, asked. Rikash might have had more patience with her, had it not been for the fact that she’d asked this question thrice before during their meeting, never once wondering if the giants getting loose would affect the commoners present in her petty little fief. Instead, she remained focused on the risk of losing money or support from Orzone.

“Yolane, my dear, you mustn’t worry yourself further over this. I’ve set the wards myself. It would take the Emperor Mage to breach them.” Tristan Staghorn replied, half bragging, half soothing. “And with Lord Rikash and his stormwings here to provide surveillance and support, no one will stop us. You will be queen within a year.”

Rikash held himself still as Yolane glanced over him and sniffed with disdain. It was humiliating to be assigned to help such mortals, more so that he was expected to take their orders and their suspicion without complaint. But it was as King Jokhun had requested, and he would obey his new king, however little he agreed with his decisions.

Luckily, it seemed the latest reminder of her impending royalty was enough to distract Yolane, and the meeting resolved shortly after. The mages present released the listening wards, and servants were ushered back in. Lord Belden waved a hand, directing one of the servants towards Rikash, and ordered him to take Rikash to his temporary quarters in the manor. The servant blanched, but showed better manners than his master, blank-facedly leading Rikash away from the petty mish-mash of nobles and mages, upwards and outwards along the manor hallways. As they turned the corner, Rikash spotted a little girl standing in a room with a book on her head, fidgeting slightly. She gasped when she saw him, the book tumbling off of her brown hair, and the servant hurried him onwards, up a flight of stairs to a tower room that had been hastily furnished with a large perch and a few tables.

It didn't take him long to write his first report back to King Jokhun, and when he finished, he found himself still mulling over the young girl he had seen earlier. Stormwings children were rare, and thus precious. He was well aware that mortals valued their children less. For this girl to be standing around in the manor was a sign that she had some status. Her dress, from what he could tell by mortal standards and the quick glance he’d had, did not seem to be anywhere near the quality of Yolane’s or Gissa’s outfits. Perhaps she was the daughter of some upper level retainer? Whoever she was, he would likely not see more of her. Mortals kept their offspring far away from Stormwings, even those who would ally with them.

***  
Whatever he had expected about the girl, it had not been that he would be introduced to her the next day, however abruptly.

He had been walking the new barracks construction with Tristan and Yolane, observing the builder’s process and giving advice on how best to construct the Stormwing mews for their long-term usage. For once, Tristan had seemed almost tolerable, more interested in learning something new than in endless self-aggrandizement. Yolane had been reasonable as well, simply talking about the lay of the land and how the building would fit into their defenses. When she dropped her endless vanity, it seemed, she had a decent mind.

From the corner of his eye he saw the girl again, playing with a kitten in the shade of the finished wall. He turned his head, still curious about the girl, and the movement must have caught Yolane’s attention as well. She stiffened abruptly, her mouth going thin and taut as she too looked at the girl. She stopped her walk, halting Tristain and Rikash as well.

“Maura!” she snapped, and the girl halted her play immediately, flinching slightly but turning to face Yolane. The kitten seemed less willing to stop its fun, batting at the girl’s skirt as if to remind her that the kitten was still there. Yolane did not wait for the girl to answer. “What are you doing down here? Why aren’t you at your lessons?”

The girl, Maura, shifted from foot to foot for a moment, then responded, “Nurse said she wasn’t feeling well, and that I should go away and let her rest. I didn’t want to bother anyone else.”

Yolane pursed her lips again, seeming dissatisfied with the answer, but Rikash would never know what she would have said next. Something caught his eye, and he reacted on instinct, lunging for the girl. His wing was above her head in an instant, as she shrieked in fright, but he barely noticed that as well, more focused on the angle of his wing as the brick he’d spotted falling glanced off with a clang.

There was a heartbeat of stunned silence from most of them, even Maura ceasing her cry out of shock. Another heartbeat passed, and a third, and then he mantled his wing back, stepping to one side and ushering her forward, away from the wall. That movement seemed to be all it took for everyone else to spring into action. Tristan began shouting up at the builders, indiscriminate threats and recriminations mingled together. Yolane dashed forward, grabbing Maura by the arms and hauling her further away from the wall, then stopping to look her over from head to toe, as if she’d somehow missed anything in the last few moments. The kitten dashed away somewhere else, which Rikash couldn’t help but believe was the most sensible option. He flexed his wings once more, to be sure that none of his feathers had taken damage, and then wandered nearer to where Yolane had pulled the girl.

The few moments of space seemed to have calmed Yolane, and she turned to him with her haughty demeanor on full display.  "Lord Rikash," she said, her voice like ice.  "I must thank you for your swift defense of my sister.  Maura is...dear to me."

Rikash kept his face blank by dint of much effort.  Whatever he'd speculated about the girl, Yolane's sister had not been one of them.  Shouldn't she be better dressed or cared for, as the sister and heir apparent of the current Lady of the Fief?  Nevertheless, politeness dictated his response.  "It was my honor to protect her," he said. 

Yolane nudged the girl, and she dipped into a hasty curtsy, stumbling slightly as she straightened out of it.  "Thank you for saving me, Lord Rikash!" she blurted.

He smiled back at here, her clumsy sincerity touching him more than Yolane's practiced courtesy.  "Think nothing of it, Lady Maura."

Yolane ushered Maura away then, leaving Rikash with Tristan and the builders in the courtyard.  He ignored them for a moment further, as Maura glanced back over her shoulder at him, smiling shyly.  He tilted his head back at her and winked, watching as her smile broadened. 

"Well," said Tristan, rejoining him.  "Now that that excitement is over, shall we continue?" 

"I am utterly at your service," Rikash said, setting all thoughts of the girl and her shy smiles to the back of his mind. There would be time to think of her later, when his other duties were completed.

 


End file.
